Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to provide funding for community pharmacies.

We are continuing to invest in the development of community pharmacy through the Pharmacy Integration Fund (PhIF). This funding is being used to support the integration of pharmacy within the wider healthcare network and encourage a much greater use of community pharmacy as a first port of call for patients. The PhIF includes two pilot schemes, which direct patients seeking an urgent medicines supply or treatment for minor illnesses directly from NHS 111 to community pharmacy. Funding was also made available by NHS England and Public Health England for the Stay Well Pharmacy campaign, encouraging more frequent use of community pharmacies.

In addition to the PhIF, the Quality Payment Scheme, as part of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework, is incentivising secure digital connectivity to other parts of the health service and the accreditation of community pharmacies as Healthy Living Pharmacies, ensuring that they are well positioned both to respond to national and local developments in out of hospital care and prevention strategies. NHS England has also recently announced investment of £1 million, to pilot the development of local system leadership for pharmacy within Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships and Integrated Care Systems to support the delivery of high quality and sustainable medicines optimisation at scale and deliver best outcomes for patients.